


Wrecking Rules

by NiCad



Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-01
Updated: 2016-01-01
Packaged: 2018-05-10 20:38:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,449
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5600026
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NiCad/pseuds/NiCad
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Springer and Arcee set some ground rules.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wrecking Rules

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers for Sins of the Wreckers #2.

_I’ll take this soul that’s inside me now_  
_Like a brand new friend I’ll forever know_  
_I’ve got this life and the will to show_  
_I will always be better than before_

[Eddie Vedder, Long Nights, Into the Wild](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mev_FBj0Fyk)

 

Springer looked in Arcee’s direction, standing out on the dock, back turned, noting how she had separated herself from the others. Noting how she had _always_ separated herself from the others. Now that things had calmed down for the moment, he decided to see what he could do about keeping them that way.

“This a good time?”

She turned her head just the slightest at his approach. “For what?”

“Just to talk. I listened to Roadbuster ramble for five years and never got a word in edgewise. I miss the sound of my own voice.”

“Fine.” She huffed a small sigh and returned her gaze back out over the frozen water, but not before he caught the smallest hint of a smile. He hoped that what he was about to attempt wouldn’t backfire and ruin the small progress she had made over the last few days.

He stood next to her, taking in the view, awed by the aurora. “Curtain of color” was how Verity had described it. It really was beautiful. They stood there quietly for a few minutes as he watched it dance, as he felt the tickle of snowflakes light on his armor and melt, as he listened to the crunch of snow under the others’ feet as they headed inside.

As he reminded himself of what it felt like to be alive.

“This is your idea of a talk? No wonder Roadbuster’s the chatterbox in your group.”

He smiled. “Sorry. Got distracted.”

“You get distracted a lot. That a normal thing?”

His smile disappeared. “No. But in the context of the last five years, I have no idea what ‘normal’ is right now.”

She gave a small shrug. “Fair enough.”

“So what’s your story?”

She stiffened. “What makes you think I have a story worth hearing?”

Here goes nothing. “I’ve worked with a lot of ‘bots with some enormous chips on their shoulders over the years, but yours is the biggest by far. What gives?”

Her hands balled into fists. “Why don’t you ask your little encyclopedia back there? He seems to have all the answers.”

“I got the broad strokes of your bio from Hubcap on the way here. I’d like you to break it down for me.”

Now she turned on him, optics blazing. “Who the hell do you think you are?! Rung? You think that out of all of the other mechs who’ve tried to figure me out, you’re the one who’s going to fix me and make it all better?”

He forced himself to remain calm, allowing only a small uptick of an optic ridge. “Not at all. But if we’re going to continue to work together, I need to know what makes you tick. We’re _all_ damaged, Arcee. I expect that. I can work with that. What I can’t do… what I _refuse_ to do anymore is stand by and allow it to go unmanaged. The slide down to the abyss is usually a slow one. I’m tired of watching people fall into it. Last thing I need is another Guzzle on my hands.”

“Everything ok out here, boss?”

Springer turned to see Roadbuster at the entrance of the warehouse, hands ready to go for his weapon. Springer’s own hand dropped to the life-sign monitor clamped to his thigh, no doubt alerting his self-proclaimed bodyguard to his troubled state. So much for remaining calm. “Yeah, we’re good. Thanks.”

Arcee watched as Springer waved Roadbuster back inside, marveling at the care Roadbuster continued to bestow upon him, then recalled how Springer had handled Kup after Prowl’s revelations of the old veteran’s delirium-fueled murders. Turning away, she breathed resigned sigh. “Ok. Fine. Your rapport with everyone here is obviously stellar. Maybe you’re not the condescending stick-shift I thought you were.”

Springer allowed himself a small smile. “Wow. I almost heard an apology in there. Was that so hard?”

“It sort of was, actually.”

“It’ll get easier.”

“You say that like you’re expecting me to practice.”

“You can start with answering my question. What do I need to know to keep Arcee the Badass from becoming Arcee the War Criminal?”

“You understand I’ve already served time at G-9?”

“Fine, fine. How do I keep you from going back?”

She took a deep breath and was quiet for several minutes, partly to gather her thoughts, partly to see if Springer would let her. To his credit, he remained still, optics searching, but not pressing. Finally, she met his gaze with her own. “Two things. First and foremost? Don’t ever try to make me something I’m not. Second? No cloak-and-dagger crap. You want something done, just tell me. No manipulation.”

Springer nodded. “Reasonable ground rules. I’ll offer a couple of my own.”

“Ok…” She crossed her arms, wary.

“Like I said, all of us here are damaged in our own way. Some more than others. Someone on my team does something glitchy, consider the fact that there’s a larger context. Give them the benefit of the doubt. And that goes for yourself as well. What Jhiaxus did to you was unconscionable, but that’s no reason to let it hold you back.”

Springer paused, and Arcee heard a soft click as he bowed his head, seeming to decide on whether or not to give voice to his second point, his mouth a thin line of pained consideration. She allowed him the same space he had allowed her, waiting for him to come around on his own. Finally, he lifted his gaze.

“We _all_ need to cut the crap and decide if we’re the good guys or the bad guys. We need to stop lying to ourselves about the ends justifying the means. I used to think they did, until my own commander shot me in the back.” Now the click was a hard one as he snapped his mouth shut, belatedly remembering the classified nature behind the reality he had just blurted out.

Now it was Arcee’s turn to casually lift an optic ridge, recognizing Springer’s refusal to meet her gaze. “Imagine that. The fairytale battle on Pova was a lie. You never told Impactor to shoot through you, did you? He just up and did it himself.”

The big triple changer trembled for a moment before regaining control. The far-away sound of the warehouse door sliding open scraped through the night as Roadbuster peeked out once more, saw that things looked reasonably under control, and then slid the door closed again.

“Yeah,” Springer finally answered. “He did.”

“And you let him back in?”

Springer remembered Impactor’s words to Overlord as he had blacked out five years ago, condemning the monster to a trial and imprisonment because it was what Springer would have wanted. He remembered Impactor moving to guard him against Carnivac as he lay on his back in the snow, helpless and paralyzed. He remembered Impactor’s revulsion at Guzzle’s kill-crazy behavior. “He’s different, now. I think he’s figured it out, too.”

Finally, he turned to face her. “The point is that road just leads to turning into Prowl. I won’t let us be his tools anymore. I won’t let us be monsters anymore.”

“The kinder, gentler Wreckers?”

Before, he would’ve taken her words as a taunt. Now, it seemed like more of a test-of-concept. He responded in kind. “Smarter. Cleaner. More precise.”

“Special Ops for Misfits, then.”

“Yeah, sure.”

“You offer a trial membership?”

He considered her for a moment. On the one hand, her potential for true insanity was right up there with the worst of any Wrecker in history. On the other, her trajectory had been one of reasonable improvement. Her scars ran deep, but she was making an honest effort to heal. Primus knew he had his own wounds to tend. The biggest unknown was how well she would mesh with the rest of the team, such as it was. The count on that had been ok once she got over her paranoia, and her fighting abilities spoke for themselves. She had drifted for so long, never quite fitting in anywhere else, never quite landing in the right spot. If there was a common glue that bound the Wreckers together, “misfit” was it, and she certainly fit that bill. Tryouts weren’t standard operating procedure, but he appeared to be in the middle of re-writing the rulebook anyway. “Promise to play nice?”

“If you promise to play it straight with me.”

He smiled and held out his hand. “Deal.”

She shook it. “Deal.”

**Author's Note:**

> I understand that writing this in the middle of a 5-part series risks the likelihood of rendering it AU within a month or so. I just got to the end of Issue 2, needed more, and couldn’t help myself.
> 
> I actually have no idea what that thing attached to Springer’s left thigh is. I don’t think it’s ever been there until the end of Issue 1, and Nick Roche has been very particular about keeping it there in every frame, so it seems important. Likely a minor point, but things like that grab at me.
> 
> Finally, I was a huge fan of Springer and Arcee in the third season of G1, so I’ll admit that it pained me to see them give each other such a hard time at the beginning of the issue. Of course, given the context of being Prowl’s go-to person just to get passed over when it really counts, and her personality as it stands in the IDW universe, it makes total sense for Arcee to be the way she is here, so I can’t actually complain about it. She showed signs of warming up to Springer towards the end of issue 2, so we’ll see where this goes, but I felt the need to put down what I see as a best-case scenario. That said, I’m totally digging this series and can’t wait for more!


End file.
